While on my McMenamins Passport ad­ven­ture, as I collect a location stamp from each of their 100&plus; venues, I try to at least have a drink at each location, and often some food as well. And because I want to maximinze my Passport ad­ven­ture experience, I try to have a Mc­Men­a­mins beer that I have not had before.

Not everyone trying to complete their McMenamins Passport makes the most of the experience like I do, with plenty of food, drink, photography, admiration and exploration. Some Passporters want to finish as soon as possible, without really experiencing what McMenamins is all about. They just walk into a lo­ca­tion, get their stamp, and then im­me­di­ate­ly walk out. That’s no fun!

This approach does not work at every venue. As I have mentioned previously, mostly at their hotels, but at a handful of other locations as well, you have to find out what the current clue is, find the object at that venue which matches the clue, and then take a selfie with the ob­ject. This “discovery hunt” is all part of the McMenamins Passport adventure.

As of this week, McMenamins has an­nounced that this kind of discovery hunt will now be required for every location stamp at every venue. Here is what they wrote in an e-mail:

Have you noticed that when you spend some time looking around a pub, there are treasures you could have never imagined? It’s that unexpected pipe elbow smiling back at you, or tiny multifaceted lights with bulbs of dif­fer­ent colors. Everywhere you turn, there’s something new or different to discover. So in the spirit of taking a moment, soaking it all in, and dis­cov­er­ing something you may have never seen before we’re making a change to the passport rules.

In order to receive your location stamp — whether it be a pub, hotel or small bar — you will need to see / touch / find one of these treasures in that lo­ca­tion. It’s as simple as a piece of art, a light fixture or a hand painted orb. How do you know what to look for? Just ask one of our pub staff.

Q: These tasks or hunts at each lo­ca­tion — do I need to take a photo, or how does that work?

A: No, these tasks are meant to be simple ways of exploring the pub / small bar / what-​have-​you. Ask your server what the task is and they will tell you. Once you do that, you’ll get the stamp. Simple as that.

Because I am almost done with my Pass­port, this new rule will not affect me very much. And even if I still had a lot of location stamps to collect, it still would not affect me or bother me be-​cause, as I explained above, I want to explore and experience each Mc­Men­a­mins location. So I think it is a very good rule and a welcome change.

Back to the 102 McMenamins beers I have tried ... the main rea-​son I’ve been able to taste so many different beers is because McMenamins operates 25 separate small breweries, and each brewmaster is free to experiment and invent new beers. For example, in 2014 alone they created 250 new beers.

But don’t imagine that I have liked all of them. I would estimate that about two-​thirds of the 102 I have not cared for — as this photo my wife took while I was sampling their Pamela Am­ber­son dem­on­strates. On the page listing all the McMenamins beers I have tried you can read my tasting notes for each beer.

In the end it’s all part of the Mc­Men­a­mins adventure. I know for sure that my beer horizons have expanded and my tastes have definitely changed.

Before I finish I want to mention one more thing. If you com­pare the McMenamins beer listing to the contents of the Mc­Men­a­mins Beer (All Years) album, you might notice that the album has a different number of beers than the listing. That’s because I for­got to take pictures of a handful of the beers I have tried, and so I don’t have photos of those beers to go into that album. I’m disappointed, but it’s too late to do anything about it because those beers are no longer in production.